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The Fred Rogers We Know
- DonaldPShimoda 8y agoI recently watched the biography, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" I can remember watching Mister Rogers on TV a bit when I was younger, but only through reruns (I'm a child of the '90s), and not very regularly. Until recently, he was a faint memory in the back of my mind. He comes up now and again when there are terrible events (as the article mentions), but I wouldn't say he was a defining figure in my early development. After seeing the movie, I can only wish that I had had more of him and his show in my life. He was truly dedicated to producing emotionally educational television for children. I think we could do with more of that these days. Children's shows just aren't what they used to be. I think I'd give the biography a 9 out of 10. Not because it's some incredible feat of cinematic achievement, but because the message is so crucially important. Do yourself a favor and go see it.
- mholmes680 8y agofor what its worth, I think they do a good job with Daniel Tiger to continue his legacy. My kids love it (maybe because its the only thing i'll let them watch), and it has taught me a few things on how my kids are going to react to certain situations.
- lighthazard 8y agoIt's also taught me how to handle myself in certain situations as well.
- DonaldPShimoda 8y agoI've heard of that one! A friend watches that when she babysits her (much) younger sisters and she said she really likes it for them. Incidentally she didn't know that Daniel Tiger was from Mr Rogers until we saw the biography together. (She never watched Mr Rogers's Neighborhood when she was younger, and had only heard of him through pop culture.)
- bdamm 8y agoAgreed. Daniel Tiger is as much for me as it is for my son. It seems like they have handy little songs for many toddler challenges. We still sing the "flush and wash and be on your way" song, as well as "take a deep breath". It's a very different format from Mr Roger's, but maybe it has to be in order to be relevant to the ages.
- utexaspunk 8y ago"Do you need to go potty? Maybe yes, maybe no; why don't you sit and try to go?" has been immensely helpful. There's a Daniel Tiger song for every situation!
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- anonoholic 8y agoDo they have a "you're 16 already, how about you close your damn mouth when you chew your food" song?
- taneq 8y agoHaha this was my very first thought when Daniel Tiger was mentioned. "If you have to go potty, stop and go right away..." (I was working on an RTSP streaming video client and all I had handy as a video source for VLC to stream was Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood. It only took a few days because ffmpeg is awesome but this song is now burned into my brain...)
- spraak 8y agoDaniel Tiger is great, and we like it because we can watch the same episode in a few different languages (namely Swedish, German and Spanish)
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- swyx 8y agoone really has to wonder why he had to fight for 20 million dollars for children. CHILDREN! do we not care about our kids? it would be a fun stat to track government spending on military vs children. i dont even want to know the results.
- danharaj 8y agoThere's plenty of money for detaining children apart from their guardians, tho.
- zaccus 8y agoLately it almost seems like there's a competition to see who cares the least about children. As though giving any thought to their well being is some kind of unwarranted "won't anyone think of the chidren?!" hysteria. Toddlers are being arbitrarily kidnapped and kept in cages, and 40% of this country just shrugs it off. Your comment is being downvoted without rebuttal. Etc. Etc.
- jpfed 8y agoNot caring shows toughness, in their minds. “Welzer further describes that Nazism even managed to incorporate an individual’s struggle with deeds into their frame of reference. They knew that what they were doing was immoral on some level but it was framed in a way where an individual who struggled with what they had to do and did it anyway was perceived as a “real man” because he would put the good of the people’s community over his own feelings.” https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8si6x5/monday_methods_the_children_will_go_bathing_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8si6x5/monda...
- JackCh 8y agoPutting the good of the community before your personal comfort is not a trait unique to Nazis. Anybody who doesn't commit tax evasion is doing it. What made the Nazis unique was their particular notion of what constituted "good for the community".
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- sudouser 8y agoregular show and uncle something... what in the world is that! honestly thinking its a —-tinfoil hat on—- conspiracy to make young generations think to be a loser in adead-end job is ok. sorry went off a rant
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- sctb 8y agoWe've asked you a lot to post substantively and it isn't happening, so we've banned the account. If you'd like to email hn@ycombinator.com and commit to posting according to the guidelines, we can unban you. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- shams93 8y agoAs a kid the most valuable part we're the musical guests. Growing up in the night city undermined the abity of his message to impact me but he cultivated my life long love of jazz.
- sreyaNotfilc 8y agoThanks for the heads up on the movie. I didn't know it was out in theaters yet. I grew up in the 90s watching PBS all the time. PBS was pure magic at that time with Ghostwriter, Carmen San Deigo, Sesame Street. Mr. Rogers was my favorite program overall. I always stopped to watch him. He just made you feel calm and collected. I just recently watched an episode on YouTube and I ended up getting teary-eyed watching it. His simple little show was so impactful. So many great memories and morals I have learned from this show. So good. I'm afraid to go to the movie. I feel I will be sobbing uncontrollably at the end.
- jason_slack 8y agoI went and watched the documentary after seeing this thread. It was great. At the end, not a dry eye to be found.
- newswriter99 8y ago"This is an article about Fred Rogers." (inserts random paragraph about incels, misogyny and the fear of being shot at for being a woman) Talk about a big-lipped alligator moment.
- klenwell 8y agoNot sure what a "big-lipped alligator moment" is, but I thought the writer tied it all together pretty lucidly in the discussion about competing models of masculinity. Also this: > Visiting the archives of Canada’s public broadcaster this past May was more complex than usual due to increased security in the building. Five days after Alek Minassian had killed ten people and injured multiple others by driving a white van through a crowd, Canadaland reported that a post had appeared on the Incels.me message board with the subject, “[Serious] our next task: shooting up CBC headquarters.” Rogers (I learned from this article) got his start on the CBC.
- sotojuan 8y ago"A very bizarre scene in an otherwise normal story that veers off into the surreal or strange. Upon exiting that scene, the plot continues on like it never happened."
- stormbrew 8y agoI don't really know how the GP thinks it applies, but a big lipped alligator moment is a term that originated from a review of the movie All Dogs Go To Heaven about a scene that is basically irrelevant to the plot or emotional development of the characters and is literally just a musical number starring a big lipped alligator.
- akhilcacharya 8y agoOriginally coined by a Nostalgia Critic episode. Surprised to see it referenced on HN.
- stan_rogers 8y ago...and brought Ernie Coombs with him. If you're Canadian, you might remember Mr. Coombs as Mr. Dressup. Bob Homme (The Friendly Giant) came up for much the same reason at much the same time.
- hapnin 8y agoI'm a child of the 60s/early 70s who grew up watching Fred Rogers. My environment was hell as a child. His show was a small counterbalance. Every little bit helps.
- 8bitsrule 8y agoI'd guess that his model of thoughtful kindness and calmness helped many kids (without any such neighbors) sense that alternatives to their emotional environment existed. And that they could hold onto their inner authorities.
- ada1981 8y agoI got a chance to see this in NYC at the Directors Guild with a q&a with the author afterward. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jeff Erlanger in the film. He was a friend from when I was in grad school at Wisconsin - really a lovely soul.
- subpixel 8y agoI can watch the clip of him singing with Mr Rogers all day, there’s such pure, unadulterated joy in his eyes, his smile, and his voice. The backstory of the scene as explained in the current documentary makes it even more touching.
- da02 8y agoHow did you get in? Are you a director or was it open to the public?
- ada1981 8y agoI was a guest of a member of the directors guild. My friend is a director and regularly invites me. It’s always a good time. *My original post should say director, not author.
- gwbas1c 8y agoMy daughter loves Mr. Rogers. We don't watch him very often, though. There are only about 15 episodes available through Google Play. (Nothing on Netflix or Amazon.) I really wish there were more episodes available. She finds him captivating.
- throwawayjava 8y agoThere are 7 seasons available on Amazon (free with prime): https://www.amazon.com/Mister-Rogers-Neighborhood-Volume-1/dp/B004BZG1MG https://www.amazon.com/Mister-Rogers-Neighborhood-Volume-1/d... And there are a ton on PBS Kids for free: http://pbskids.org/video/mister-rogers/ http://pbskids.org/video/mister-rogers/
- jason_slack 8y agoThere is a book coming out in September: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419727729/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_31?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419727729/ref=ox_sc_sfl_t... (not affiliated, etc) Watching Mr. Rogers growing up really helped me handle tough situations growing up. It may sound weird but I remain calm, under pressure, under crisis, etc. I try to remind people of the positives the have and to work through the negatives without spreading negative energy. Edit: I didn't realize the documentary was still in theaters! That is my plan for tonight then...
- pandasun 8y ago"men who make up the misogynistic online subculture" Where in the world did this come from in an article about Fred Rogers? The author sounds unstable. What a loaded article.
- aklemm 8y agoMister Rogers' interactions with other people are the purest and most kind I've ever witnessed, so I pondered for a long time how it is that he could be so humane and kind. Finally I realized the whole thing comes from his ability to take others for exactly who they are in those moments.
- disqard 8y agoThat's very well articulated. He had no pretense and never came across as patronizing, at least in my (admittedly limited) sampling of old episodes via YouTube. The "take others for exactly who they are" mentality captures his earnestness and utter lack of guile in his interactions. I'm sure you've seen him testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications to maintain funding for PBS [0], but I'll leave this link here anyway, for others who might not have seen this. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0AA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0AA
- acjohnson55 8y agoIt was also clear to me that he was truly willing to devote as much of his attention as possible to another person for a solid minute or two. Not long at all, but it feels like an eternity when you see his non-judgmental, undistracted gaze locked in.
- wongma 8y agoHe took his Christian faith very seriously and that heavily influenced his worldview and treatment of others. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Jesus in the book of Mark 12:30-31
- glial 8y agoAnd Rogers had his own related message: "Love your neighbor and love yourself."
- emptybits 8y agoBig Fred Rogers fan here. I saw "Won't You Be My Neighbor" in a theatre last week and it cemented my belief that his love and dedication to childhood development is just as necessary today as it was in the 60s and 70s when I watched it. Balance for the "animated barrages" of amusement, as Rogers called them. So does anyone know how to view/buy/rent a large (complete?) collection of all those wonderful old episodes? I would like to re-watch these with young family members. I'd happily buy a big Blu-ray or DVD set but I didn't see such a thing available on PBS' site.
- gb_ 8y agoAmazon has almost all of them, all the way back to the first episode. We subscribe to PBS kids (through Amazon) for our daughter, but I'm not sure if that's required for the Mr. Rogers series.
- s4vi0r 8y agoSeasons 1-7 are available on Amazon, though I don't know if that covers all of them or not.
- sekh60 8y agoIt does not unfortunately, there are 31 seasons.
- sekh60 8y agoThere is no legally available full collection. Twitch did a full run with NBC (I think it was that channel) as a stream last year and a bunch of people screen-capped it and uploaded it to a few places. I got my copy from a btsync link.
- seoguru 8y agoI'm Seeing Mr. Rogers pop up quite a bit recently. Reminds me of a srsly good podcast episode about Mr. Rogers: https://srslywrong.com/podcast/ep-131-the-genius-of-mr-rogers/ https://srslywrong.com/podcast/ep-131-the-genius-of-mr-roger...
- acjohnson55 8y agoHaving just watched "Won't You Be My Neighbor?", it's really interesting to read this piece. It overlaps the content of that documentary, but also explores other parts of Rogers' story that weren't covered in the film. It's a really touching movie. I came away struck by the quiet radicalism of Rogers' mission to simply validate other human beings, especially children. He seemed to have honed the ability to climb the wall we put up to protect ourselves once we learn that we're on our own in this world, as that world invariably let's us down by ignoring us and invaliditating our dignity.